Religious figures Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Religious figures - Term Paper ExampleAccording to the History, Lord Mahavir was the last Tirthankara of the Jain religion. As per the Jain methodology all Tirthankaras were human beings. They acquired the status of perfection / enlightenment after passing by meditation and self realization. Hence, Jains consider themselves as the perfect human beings. They do not either assume God as their creator, protector and the destroyer of the Universe nor they believe in the destruction of demons (Nagaraja 43). Mahavira was born in 599 B.C. in the Bihar State of India in the Kings house. His following celebrate his birthday each grade as Mahavir Jayanti. The name given to him by his p arents was Vardhaman. Being a loving son of his parents, he utilise to enjoy pleasures and comforts of life in a princely manner. When he attained the age of 30, he gave up all the pleasures of material world and left his family and the Royal abode for good in appear of finding solution to the problems of common concourse and became Monk (Jain & Upadhye 36). After leaving the family and the Royal home, he exhausted his next 12 years in deep silence and meditation to get rid of the pleasures of life. He did not indulge in any activities that could be harmful for the animals and the birds. In some part of the mentioned period, he lived without food. He found himself quite calm and composed in the face of unbearable sufferings. Due to cited qualities, he earned the fame of Mahavir, which means brave and courageous. During said period, his spiritual power completely developed and comes to the stage of self realization. Such realization in the religion of Jain is known as keval jnana (perfect/enlighten) (Jain & Upadhye 39). Soon after period of self realization exercise, Mahavir spent another 30 years of his life to travel in the length and width of India barefooted. During this period, he used to teach people about the truth that he realized. He appraised the people how an individual can enjoy freedom from the cycle of birth, pain, misery, life and death and to achieve the state of gladness for good. This state of bliss is known as nirvana or moksha (Nagaraja 54). According to the feels of Mahavir, under the influence of karma, the sense becomes greedy of worldly pleasures (personal belongings and possessions). In his view, worldly pleasures make an individual self centered resulting in more and more amassing of karmas.He used to preach the right faith, right path and good conduct, which contend decisive role in freeing the soul from the clutches of karma (Winternitz 107). We cite here three major solutions of the life of Mahavir a) Conception (Chyavana), an event when his mother conceived him in her womb b) after conceiving him in womb, the mother had cardinal dreams, but as per the belief of Digambar, they were sixteen dreams and c) his birth was the memorable event for his mother and the family alike. According to the belief of Mahavirs followers, soo n after his birth, the King of Heaven took him to the Mount of Meru and celebrated his birthday. The most important event in his life was when he gave up all worldly materials in his possession and took refuge in the ascetic order (Jain & Upadhye 47). The ages of darkness in the life of mankind, gave birth to three great religions namely Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The mentioned religions are deep rooted religions. The said religions made its inroads in the Old Testament patriarch. Abraham used to teach their followers about one God and no more (known as Ibrahim in Islam), was said